Nairobi based, anti-colonial afro-punk rockers Crystal Axis share their latest single, Take The Throne, in anticipation of their upcoming project, Lunatic Express, which is scheduled for release in November.

The godfathers of Kenyan punk issue a call-to-action on Take The Throne, urging listeners to dismantle elitist, meritocratic systems. This reactionary single highlights the plight of governmental suppression of ordinary citizens across the globe, placing emphasis on issues of police brutality and corruption in Kenya. Speaking on their headspace when creating the song, the band says,

“Take The Throne was borne out of frustration at the current status quo and way of life, not just in Kenya but the world over. This year has particularly highlighted that there must be a shift and there must be a change; literally everyone wants things to improve for the better but we are being held back by no more than 1% of the population. Take The Throne is a literal call to action for us, the people, the masses, the ones with the power, to get up and actually take the throne and dismantle all the harmful and archaic systems that have been put into place to oppress us, stifle our voices and hold us back. In the hook we say "every roaring fire starts with a single march" because every turning point in the history of mankind has started with a group of people which then grew more and more once people realised that WE have the numbers, and that these systems should be working for us and not against us.”

 we kept everything as raw as possible because we wanted the music to convey our anger, pain and frustration in terms of the intensity, aggression and the lyrics. We also kept everything 'in house' where we recorded, mixed and mastered everything ourselves and we commissioned my sister Naila for the artwork illustration

Take The Throne is raw, gritty and aggressive; it oozes the bands anger, pain and frustration. Creating this environment was an intentional decision and aptly executed by founding member Djae Aroni who handled the mixing and mastering. The artwork, created by Kenyan artists Naila Aroni and Blacky Warhol, perfectly mirrors the track in illustrating the dismantling of patriarchical structures.

Stream Take The Throne here.

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